Attractor flies are becoming increasingly popular in the sport of fly fishing for catching big fish, inducing hard takes and fishing with large flashy flies.
No fly fisherman should hit the water without attractor flies in his fly box. They can be used to catch different trout species from brown and rainbow trout to brook and cutthroat trout.
Trout are territorial fish, when fishing attractor flies, putting a large flashy fly in front of the fish will not only trigger its hunting instinct but also the need to defend its territory. In this way, a trout can be caught as it attacks the attractor fly.
In this article, I will outline what an attractor fly is and how you can fish attractor flies to catch more fish in your fishing season.
What is an Attractor Fly?
An attractor fly is an attention-grabbing fly. It attracts the focus of the fish on to it and encourages it to investigate the fly. The attractor fly can be enough to entice the fish to bite. If the attractor fly is fished with other flies, in some cases, the fish may lose interest in the attractor fly and take another fly such as a nymph or emerger pattern.
Attractor fly patterns are share common characteristics. Typically, an attractor fly is highly-visible, with bright and flashy colors used in the tying of the fly.
Often, but not always, an attractor fly will be large so it stands out to the fish. A dry fly, nymph and streamers can all be attractor flies.
How to Use an Attractor Fly in Fly Fishing
As we have seen, attractor flies are great at catching the attention of a fish. An attractor fly will get the fish to follow the fly.
Attractor flies can be fished alone or as a dropper. When fished as a dropper, the trout may follow the fly. If the fish loses focus, it may spot one of the alternative flies with a more natural imitation pattern and take one of these flies instead.
This makes attractor flies an important part of your fly fishing rig.
When to Use an Attractor Fly?
Attractor flies are particularly effective for catching rainbow trout in lakes and reservoirs. You can
Attractor flies are great for catching fish at both the start and the end of the fishing season when insect life is less abundant than during the summer months. Hungry fish will be looking for easy large meals to put on weight for breeding.
Below, I will discuss my top attractor flies for fly fishing.
Best Attractor Flies for Catching Trout
Attractor flies can be any type of fly including nymphs, dry flies, streamers and lures. It is often their size and importantly their bold colors that mesmerize the fish and induce a take.
1 Wooly Bugger
The wooly bugger is a great fly to use as an attractor. Depending on the color of the fly it can imitate a variety of aquatic life including nymphs and small fry.
Try tying your wooly buggers with flash in the tail to make them further stand out to fish. Although they can be tied using a bead head or lead wire to make them sink faster, I prefer unweighted versions of the fly.
2 Cat’s Whisker
The cat’s whisker fly is a famous lure fly first tied by David Train in 1985. As the name suggests, the original tying of the fly used cat whiskers.
It is one of the most popular fly lures used in the UK. Tied with white marabou and yellow chenille, the cat’s whisker imitates a small bait fish.
The cat’s whisker makes a great attractor fly, not only do the colors stand out but these days, the versions of the fly using chain bead eyes are the most popular. You can use various colored chain beads to act as a trigger point to attract fish.
3 Booby Fly
Originally created to represent insects, the booby fly was changed at vices and eventually became the obnoxiously colorful fly we know today. A fly once used to imitate emergers became an attractor fly now popular among many fishermen at reservoirs.
Apart from the foam booby eyes, the fly is similar to the cat’s whisker as is uses marabou in its tail and wing. Although, some booby fly variants are tied without a wing. The booby fly typically has sparkle fritz for a body rather than chenille.
You can add the booby foam eyes to traditional imitation patterns, the bubble created by the eyes are great for representing the bubbles given off by emerging insects.
4 Blob Fly
Another fantastic attractor fly is the blob fly. The blob fly came about as a response to the banning of booby flies.
The effectiveness of the booby fly at catching fish quickly made it popular at reservoirs and fisheries across the UK. So much so, some fisheries banned them from being used.
This lead to the invention of foam arsed boobies in which foam was used at the back of the fly rather than the front of the fly. This allowed for the principles that made the original booby so effective to be used but in reverse.
Eventually, some versions removed the foam completely while other variants added flashy tails instead of the foam. Like the booby, the blob fly quickly became another favorite among British fly fishermen.
5 Flash-back Pheasant Tail Nymph
Making small changes to a traditional fly pattern can turn a regular fly into an effective attractor fly. By adding opal tinsel to make the wing case of a pheasant tail nymph, you can easily turn a pheasant tail nymph into a fly that is sure to get the attention of trout.